The Greek woman who was pictured fleeing her burning home in anguish has revealed she lost sight of her husband moments before the iconic image was taken.
Panayiota Noumidi, 81, has explained to Star.gr that she could not find her husband as flames engulfed their home on the island of Evia because he was helping battle the wildfires, causing her to cry out for help.
“At the moment of the photo, the flames were coming towards us and my husband ran with the bucket to throw water behind our house where the fire was. I lost sight of him and cried, ‘help, help!’,” the 81-year-old told Star.gr.
Mrs Noumidi was later reunited with her husband and taken to a hospital for treatment, but was discharged because she wanted to return to Gouves, her home of 34 years, and inspect the damage. Her home was saved.
“At the hospital they kept telling me that nothing had happened to homes, only the forest burned. Why should the forest burn? Is it not a sin?” Mrs Noumidi said.
When asked by the reporter how she feels that the iconic image has gone viral around the world, in typical Greek fashion, Mrs Noumidi said that “didn’t interest her.”
“I’m interested in getting up one day and seeing everything again as I knew them to be. I didn’t want publicity. What will I do with it? I’m interested in people showing interest in Evia which has been completely burned down,” she concluded, visibly upset.
Greece has for over a week been ravaged by wildfires which, fanned by strong winds, have torn through forest dried out in a blistering heatwave.
Hardest-hit has been the island of Evia, where flames have now raged for nine days – racing from one side of the island to the other, reducing everything in their path to ash, and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate.
Source: DailyMail.
